Creamy Sweet Potato, Pumpkin, and Apple Soup

In all honesty it really doesn't get cold enough here to be true soup weather.  That doesn't stop me from craving soup every now and again, especially on a rainy night.  Soup is one of those dishes that just screams comfort to me.  One of my favorites is pumpkin soup, but I decided to add a few different ingredients into my regular recipe.


Roasting pumpkin, sweet potato, and apple just brings out all of their yummy goodness.  Once these vegetables have been roasted this soup comes together very quickly.  That drizzle of honey and sprigs of rosemary add that something special to the soup.  Actually honey and rosemary together have become one of my favorite combinations.  Both ingredients have health benefits too so I am happy to use them whenever I can.  Honey has been proven to energize the body, boost immunity, fight bacteria, promote healing of cuts and burns, and help heal sore throats.  I remember my Home Economics teacher telling the class that if we could keep honey in our throats permanently we would never suffer from a sore throat.  Research has shown that rosemary contains anti-inflammatory compounds that may make it useful for reducing the severity of asthma attacks and substances that are useful for stimulating the immune system, increasing circulation, and improving digestion. Also, rosemary has been shown to increase the blood flow to the head and brain, therefore improving concentration.  I think I will go and pick a branch a day to test out the last fact.



It also freezes well, but make sure that you do not add the cream prior to freezing as it tends to curdle the mixture after you thaw it.  I find that if you thaw it out, gently reheat, and then add the cream it works like a charm.  I love serving this with a little Greek yogurt on top and some crusty bread.  I have also added coconut milk rather than cream to my regular pumpkin soup, and I bet it would taste great in this soup too.

Creamy Sweet Potato, Pumpkin, and Apple Soup©

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Ingredients

• 1 butternut pumpkin (about 2 lbs), chopped into cubes
• 3 Granny Smith apples, peeled and chopped into cubes
• 2 sweet potatoes, chopped into cubes
• 2 sprigs rosemary
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 onion, diced
• 3 tablespoon olive oil, divided
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 6 cups vegetable broth
• 1/2 cup cream (or half & half)
• 1/2 cups water (or more depending on desired consistency)
• sour cream or Greek yogurt

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 400°F.
2. Pour 2 tablespoon olive oil in a roasting pan and add sweet potato, pumpkin, and apple in a roasting pan.
3. Drizzle honey over top and toss to coat. 
4. Add sprigs of rosemary, salt, and pepper and roast for approximately 30 minutes.  Toss the mixture, and then continue roasting for another 10-15 minutes, or until tender.
5. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil to a soup pot and saute the onion until translucent. 
6. Remove rosemary sprigs and add roasted vegetables and stock and bring to a gentle boil.
7. Remove from heat and allow to cool for about 10 minutes.
8. Puree the mixture in a blender or food processor.
9. Return pot to a gentle heat and add cream, nutmeg, and water. 
10. Check seasoning and serve with a little sour cream or Greek yogurt on top.

Makes approximately 10 cups.

Recipe by All That's Left Are The Crumbs.

Hawaii - The Saturday Farmers' Market

I love visiting Farmers' Markets. When I am lucky enough to travel I always try to find out where the local farmer's market is and add it to our plans.  It tells you so much about the neighborhood.  There is just something special about all of the incredibly hard workers who make up the market.  Besides the goods they are selling they all have a story to share.

My local Farmers' Market is The Saturday Farmers' Market at the Kapiolani Community College, just a few minutes drive from Waikiki.  It is co-sponsored by the Hawaii Farm Bureau Federation and the Culinary Institute of the Pacific at Kapiolani Community College. It is the largest Farmers' Market in Hawaii and the only one featuring all Hawaii grown and produced foods and flowers.  Vendors selling their goods at this market have extremely strict guidelines to follow regarding the origin of their goods. Some of the guidelines include:

• Fruits, vegetables, and flowers must be grown in Hawaii. 
• All ready to eat, processed and value added food products must be made in Hawaii in a certified commercial kitchen and Hawaii grown ingredients should be incorporated into the product whenever possible (the greater the percentage of Hawaii grown ingredients used in ready to eat food products may determine a vendor’s participation in the markets).
• All beverages sold  need to be bottled or produced in Hawaii.  This applies to soft drinks, bottled water, tea, coffee and other items sold in the market. 
 

There are some wonderful vendors at this market.  Most of them are there every week, although sometimes a new one comes in to fill in a spot for someone who is sick.  Each week there is a Tip Sheet produced so that you can check out exactly who will be at the market on Saturday.  You can also follow the market on Twitter @HNLFarmers for market updates, specials & pictures.



I saw so many things that I wanted to buy.  Dean Okimoto's Nalo Farms has some of the best greens.  Nalo Farms supplies approximately 130 restaurants with over 3,000 pounds of their tasty greens each and every week, including Roy's.  I always stop by the Hawaiian Fudge Sauce stand. Seriously, you will think that you died and went to heaven after tasting the samples.  It is very hard to walk away with just one jar of fudge sauce.  I recommend you buy a few because this stuff is good right off the spoon, so you might need another jar for your ice cream. I tried some samples from Honomu Jams and Jellies - Passionfruit Butter, Passionfruit Ginger Jam, Tahitian Lime Ginger Jelly, Sugar Free Waimea Strawberry (made with blue agave).  They were all excellent and the taste of the fruit really shines through. I found it hard to choose, so I picked two, and will go back in a few weeks to try a few more.




After visiting the market I drove down the road to Diamond Head Market Grill.  Their blueberry scones are legendary and on the weekends they also have banana scones (Fri-Sun).  These scones are different from your average scone.  They are so moist and cake-like, and have a very light vanilla glaze on top.  They also have a wide range of prepared foods that make this the perfect place to stop before you head out for a day at the beach, or you can enjoy one their breakfast or lunch plates.  They may not have a view but their food more than makes up for it.  And if you do need a view the beaches of Waikiki are a few minutes down the road, and so is the beautiful Kapiolani Park.

Balsamic Roasted Vegetable Soup

We don't often have "soup weather" here in Hawaii, but that does not stop me from craving it.  When the temperatures were predicted to drop a few nights ago (hey, 57°F is a cold night for us) I thought this was my perfect opportunity to get the soup pot bubbling.  I really wanted to make a vegetable soup as I knew this would suit everyone in my family, but I wanted to make it a little different so I came up with Balsamic Roasted Vegetable Soup.

I seem to have been roasting a lot of vegetables lately, so I thought why not roast the vegetables and bring out that sweetness for my soup.  Then I thought, why not add a splash of balsamic vinegar to give it that extra kick.  So into the roasting pan went the butternut pumpkin, onions, yellow bell pepper, and some baby carrots.  I meant to add celery but forgot, oh well next time.  With some balsamic vinegar and olive oil drizzled over the top they went into the oven and  roasted for about 45 minutes.  

Once the vegetables were roasted I transferred them to my stock pot,  making sure I got all the bits from the bottom of the pan.  I seasoned them with salt and pepper, and added a can of fire-roasted tomatoes, and used my stick blender to coarsely puree them.  If you don't have a hand blender you can put them in a blender but be careful to put a towel over the top because you don't want to accidentally get splattered.  After adding four cans of vegetable stock I brought the soup to the boil, lowered the heat and added 1/2 cup barley. Barley was something my grandmother always added to her soups. The soup then simmered away until the barley was cooked.  A few handfuls of baby spinach were added just before serving.

I really enjoyed this soup and kept thinking how healthy every mouthful was.  We definitely got our servings of fruits and vegetables with this meal.  Next time I hope to remember the celery and maybe add some other vegetables too.  This would be a great soup if you are looking to clean out the refrigerator, and had vegetables that needed to be used up.  The barley was a big hit, but my other choice would have to been to add some small cheese tortellinis to the soup, so maybe I'll try that next time.  I served this with a little Parmesan cheese grated on top and a nice crusty loaf of Dutch Crunch bread.

Balsamic Roasted Vegetable Soup

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Ingredients

• 3 cups cubed butternut pumpkin
• 1 onion, cut into wedges and separated
• 3 medium carrots, cut into pieces
• 1 yellow bell pepper, cut into pieces
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 1 14-oz can fire-roasted tomatoes
• 4 14-oz cans vegetable stock
• 1/2 cup barley
• 4 cups baby spinach
• salt and pepper to taste
• Parmesan cheese to garnish

Preparation

1. Pre-heat oven to 400°F.
2. Place pumpkin, onion, carrots, and bell pepper in a large roasting pan and drizzle with balsamic.
3. Transfer to oven and roast for approximately 45 minutes, until very tender.
4. Transfer vegetables to a stock pot and season with salt and pepper, add tomatoes, and blend until coarsely pureed.
5. Add vegetable stock and bring to a boil.
6. Reduce heat and add barley, cooking until barley is tender.
7. Add spinach and cook for about 5 minutes.
8. Serve with grated Parmesan cheese if desired.

Makes about 8 servings.

Pumpkin Joy

What you call squash in the US, I still call pumpkin most of the time.  Even after all these years I still revert back to calling it pumpkin.  I don't know why because I manage quite well with baking soda, self-rising flour, and cornstarch.  It doesn't matter because either way it is one of my favorite fruits.  No, that is not a typo.  Did you know that butternut squash is actually a fruit?  Though considered a vegetable in cooking, botanically speaking, squash is a fruit.


I recently discovered a blog by Michael called Verses From My Kitchen.  I have found that since I discovered it that I just keep bookmarking more and more recipes, for example Puréed Squash and Pear Soup,  Blackberry and Pear Crumble, and Chocolate Crinkles with Sambuca and Coffee Extract.  He also has a cool gadget on the side with his iPod playlist that plays when you load the page.   I have to get these songs.  I totally loved having the music playing whilst I was cooking.

I have been purchasing a lot of the pre-cut butternut pumpkin from Costco lately.  Not only is it much cheaper than the equivalent amount of pumpkin at a grocery store, but all the work has been done for me.  Who wouldn't love that?  I had two dishes in mind - Michael's Puréed Squash and Pear Soup and a Roasted Butternut Pumpkin with Honey & Rosemary, which is my own creation.

The soup is so easy to prepare.  I actually added an extra cup of pumpkin and an extra cup of pear to my soup.  I decided to use a Korean Jumbo Shingo pear and I didn't want the other half to go brown, so I just threw it in the roasting pan too. After roasting the vegetables I added a little vegetable stock and pureed them right in the pan with my Cuisinart Hand Blender.  The only problem with the hand blender is that it can tend to splatter the food so my solution is to put a plastic bag around the pan, cut a hole in the top, blend away, and then dispose of the bag. We wanted a chunkier soup so I skipped running it through a sieve.  I just returned the soup to the heat, added the remainder of the stock, and gently reheated it.  It is a wonderful soup with great flavor.  A little yogurt and chives on top and we were all in pumpkin soup heaven.

With the remainder of the butternut pumpkin I decided to roast it.  We ate some of it tonight for dinner and the rest will probably be used on a mini pizza.  I just love the combination of pumpkin, honey, and rosemary.

Pureed Pumpkin and Pear Soup
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Ingredients 

• 2 cups diced butternut squash 
• 2 cups diced Bartlett pear
• 1 cup chopped white onions
• 3 garlic cloves, smashed
• 2 celery, stalks chopped
• 4 tbsp. butter
• 1 tsp. all-spice
• 4 cups vegetable stock
• 1/4 cup Greek yogurt, garnish
• 3 tbsp. toasted squash seeds, optional garnish
• 1 bunch fresh chives, chopped, optional garnish

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 450°F degrees.
2. Place the squash, pear, onions, celery, allspice and garlic on a baking sheet and season with coarse sea salt and pepper and spread bits of butter throughout. Bake for 30 minutes.
3. Move to a stockpot and, using a hand blender, puree until completely liquid, adding as much of the stock as necessary.
4. Combine the puree with the rest of the stock and heat. Find the correct thickness and bring to a simmer for 15 minutes. Season to taste
5. Serve with a dollop of yogurt and chopped chives.

Recipe adapted from Verses From My Kitchen 

Roasted Butternut Pumpkin with Honey and Rosemary

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Ingredients

• 2 cups pre-cut butternut pumpkin
• 3 tablespoons honey
• 2 tablespoons rosemary, roughly chopped
• salt and pepper to taste

Preparation

1. Pre-heat oven to 450°F.
2. Place pumpkin in a small roasting pan.
3. Top with honey, rosemary, salt, and pepper.
4. Roast for approximately 30 minutes.